Introduction to XSL

Benefits of XSL

• XSL vs. DOM and SAX processing
• Separating data and presentation layers
• XSL capabilities

XSL components

• Functions in XSLT
• Creating multiple XPath expressions
• Analysing XSL-FO
• Input and output trees
• XSL processors
• Strategies for client-side and server-side applications

Creating XSLT Documents

XSLT building blocks

• Style sheet elements
• Template syntax
• Calling and applying templates
• Determining when to use Push and Pull style sheets

Style sheet elements

• Copying XML data
• Handling special characters
• XSLT conditional statements: if and choose
• Performing repetitive operations
• Working with XSLT variables
• Analysing XSLT functions

Searching and Filtering with XPath

Applications of XPath

• Querying and searching XML data
• Mapping XPath expressions to XML data
• XPath in XSL, XQuery and DOM
• Filtering with XQuery

Navigating with XPath

• XML as tree structures
• Selecting regions of input trees
• Traversing with the 13 axes points

Pattern matching

• Combining location steps
• Testing and filtering nodes
• Leveraging XPath functions
• Constructing complex predicates

Managing Effective XSL Design

Designing and debugging XSL

• Defining and passing template parameters
• Developing efficient style sheets with advanced XSL features
• Resolving XSL limitations with language extensions and recursion

Applying XSL to Internet architectures

• Integrating XSL into a three-tier architecture
• Employing object-oriented design patterns with XSL
• Creating maintainable and reusable XSL

Generating XML Output

Creating XML elements and attributes

• Incorporating XSL elements to guarantee well-formed XML output
• Adding validation to output documents using XML schemas

Managing text and numbers

• Producing XML, HTML and other electronic documents
• Outputting raw text
• Formatting and sequencing numbers
• Sorting and grouping output

Optimising XSL

• Storing dictionary information with keys
• Selecting an appropriate parser for speed and efficiency

Printing and Displaying XML

Examining XQuery with XSLT

• The benefits of XQuery
• Querying data with XQuery
• Displaying data using XQuery features

Creating PDF files with XSL-FO

• Designing layout of master pages with region, block and flow elements
• Displaying data with lists and tables
• Translating XSL-FO to PDF with FOP

Future of XSL

• XPath 2.0
• XSLT 2.0
• Integrating XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0